Gayhurst

For other uses, see Gayhurst (disambiguation).

Gayhurst
Gayhurst  Gayhurst shown within Buckinghamshire
Population	128
OS grid reference	SP849466
Civil parish	Gayhurst
Unitary authority	Milton Keynes
Ceremonial county	Buckinghamshire
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	NEWPORT PAGNELL
Postcode district	MK16
Dialling code	01908
Police	Thames Valley
Fire	Buckinghamshire
Ambulance	South Central
EU Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	Milton Keynes North
List of places UK England Buckinghamshire

Gayhurst is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Milton Keynes, ceremonial Buckinghamshire in England. It is about two and a half miles NNW of Newport Pagnell.

The village name is an Old English language word meaning 'wooded hill where goats are kept'. In the Domesday Book in 1086 it was recorded as Gateherst. At that time the manor was owned by Bishop Odo of Bayeux.

Gayhurst had an outstation from the Bletchley Park codebreaking establishment, where some of the Bombes used to decode German Enigma messages in World War Two were housed.

Gayhurst House is reputed to have once belonged to Sir Francis Drake although it is not known whether he ever lived there, and for many years the gatehouse leading to the estate was a public house called the Francis Drake. The house certainly once belonged to the father-in-law of Sir Everard Digby (1578–1606), one of the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, and he resided there for some time.

The church of St Peter was built in the classical style in 1728 to replace a medieval church; the designer is unknown.

External links

• 'Parishes : Gayhurst', Victoria History of the Counties of England, A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 4 (1927), pp. 343–347.